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Diddy Kong Racing
Written by _moomy. I was lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling. It was one of those Friday nights where the town was dead. Nobody was out. Nobody wanted to be. And of course, it was the night I really needed something to do. I was home by myself and couldn't think of a worse scenario: being alone with my thoughts. I deliberately do not talk about my brother's death much (mostly because I stay in his room now), but sometimes, like tonight, the memories come back and I can't help it. When it happens, the only thing I can't stop dwelling on was how trivial it all was. He was taken in his sleep. One night I said goodnight to him and in the morning he was gone... just like that. The autopsy found nothing and no doctor we asked knew how something like that could happen to a perfectly healthy individual. Eventually, the experts came to a weak conclusion— probably his heart. Probably. I can see the side of his picture, hanging in a frame on my wall. Tonight, it will be exactly 10 years that has chipped away at the pain I feel when I look at it. The photo was one of those taken at just the right angle so his dark eyes and blank expression seem to follow you when you walk by. My friends always found it creepy. I guess I never did. It was definitely odd. He wasn't smiling in it. Taken during his junior year of high school, he thought it would be funny if, right before the photographer snapped the picture, he changed his smile to a blank expression. It was the last picture taken of him. And I don't know if it was that fact or that the story of the photo captured his personality so well, but that picture means the world to me. I had to stop thinking. I sat up in my bed, stretching while reaching for my phone on the night stand. It was 8:03pm, far too early for me to fall asleep. I sat, frustrated on the side of my bed. There was nothing I felt like doing. The things I normally relied on to waste time felt so pointless. I turned to look at my brother's emotionless gaze but didn't like the power it had over me at the moment. Maybe tonight I would... yes, that's it, tonight maybe I'd try remembering. I walked to the garage and flipped on the light and rummaged through the shelves of junk my mother collects. She keeps "memory boxes", large totes filled with certain accomplishments from each of her children. Inside there is always a random collection of things. In mine: drawings from 1st grade, Honor Roll Awards (*cough, yeah what's up), newspaper articles, etc... I grabbed my brother's box and walked back inside. In my room, I lifted the lid. Immediately on top was his teddy bear. I moved it to the side to find old music CDs, a couple report cards, and... I laughed. No way, his old Nintendo 64. Inside our old favorite game cartridge was loaded, Diddy Kong Racing. Memories, happy ones, of watching him try to win a race against the game's final boss,Wizpig, came to me. He would get so frustrated because of the difficulty. Sometimes he would go as far as saying that it was impossible to win, that somehow he got the one broken game that because of some software glitch, couldn't be beaten. I saw the memory card inside the console and an idea struck me. I dusted off the Nintendo, grabbed the cords and controller, and hooked it up to my television. I said a silent prayer as I changed my television to the right channel and flipped the system on. It came to life. A wild grin formed, I couldn't believe it. My brother's blank expression showed in the reflection of the television. I turned off the light to hide it because my friends were kind of right, it can be creepy. The old introduction to the game lit my dark room and I clicked through the screens, picking my favorite character (Tiptup the Turtle), and said another prayer as I loaded the final boss race. Once again, I was rewarded. Next to the giant pig, in the pit-pattering of rain in the level, was the white, see-through version of Timber the Tiger— my brother's favorite character. His ghost file had been saved all this time. A tear streamed down my face as the race started: "GOoooo!" It was hard. Not only was the giant pig boss hard to beat, but my brother was even harder because he had become so good by the time he beat it. I could pass the boss for a moment and maybe catch a glimpse of him. He was so far ahead. The night slipped away from me as I began to feel his frustrated cycle of defeat, but I was determined. 9 turned into 10 turned into 11. I was getting better. I could almost beat the pig, but I was still not even as close to my brother. I would follow him as closely as I could until I made the slightest mistake and fall behind. Around midnight, I finally beat the pig. I was overwhelmed with joy. I could only imagine how it felt for him, the first one to do it. I felt closer to him in that moment. I looked at my race time on the television. It was still just a few seconds behind my brother. Ambition took over. I fired up the race again. By 1 am I had turned into a machine. My skills honed, I could now easily beat the pig every time while also inching closer and closer to the elusive Timber. It was 2am, one lap until the race was over. The rain would become violent this lap, filling the track with water, every move mattered. The pig, long behind us we flew, tiger and turtle, neck and neck, together the entire race and into the final corner. It felt surreal, like we were somehow together. At that last corner I recognized my opportunity, my brother always took it just a little to wide. I maneuvered just slightly ahead of him. I could see my kart just a hair ahead of his as we approached the finish line. I smiled, I had done it. We flashed passed the line. The game shouted, "A NEW REC-!" , but the room went completely black. I had turned off the console. I didn't want my file to save over his. Feeling immensely better, I decided to get ready for bed. It was late. I stood up and felt around my wall for the light. Flicking it on, I immediately jumped against the wall, startled. I couldn't find my breathe. My eyes grew wide. My stomach tied itself into a complete knot. My brother... in the photo— he was smiling at me. Category:CreepyPasta Article Category:Lost Video Games Category:Creepypastas narrated by DaveTheUseless